Cranedale
Day 3
A slightly slower
start to the day this morning. A few
sleepy looking children crawled into breakfast and quietly consumed their fry
up and cereal.
We have
spent most of the day exploring the North Yorkshire Moors. The learning has involved
looking at ways nature adapts to its surroundings. The area of the moors where we were studying
is about an hours drive from the Cranedale Centre. We set off at about 10.00am and it was not
long into the journey when the sound of snoring could be heard from Bryce.
Refreshed
from his power nap, Bryce with all the others climbed off the bus and began a
walk down a “v-shaped” valley looking for water. During the walk down, the children found
various dead animal skeletons and took the opportunity to take many
photos. Euan and Jack attempted to take the
most artistic photograph. James had
other ideas. He decided he would record
his thoughts on video. Obviously
inspired by Bear Grylls, James became more enthusiastic as the journey went
on. Even after his fifth fall of the
walk he was still determined to record every moment.
The
children were shown how to safely grab a nettle, eat sorrel and wipe themselves
with moss. This last skill would prove
useful after the children discovered that there were no toilets on the moors
and we would be spending six hours away from the centre.
Something wonderful
occurred at 12.10pm. An object was
spotted that has not been seen by Salterford children at Cranedale since 2010.
The sun made a welcome appearance. Not
only did it appear, it stayed with us for the rest of the day. After four years of moaning about the rain,
it would be churlish of me to moan about the sun. But it was a bit warm.
At the
bottom of the valley, the children found a stream and were given the
opportunity to find various life forms present. Flies, nymphs and shrimps are
easy to find. Fish are a rarer
commodity. However, there was much
excitement when Callum, Macy and Danielle all found fish. Ryan, however, topped the lot when he found a
frog. Miss V remarked that no one had
ever found a frog in twenty plus years of coming to Cranedale. This needed investigation. Textbooks were scoured, Google searched and
field study charts perused. It came as a bit of a disappointment when it was
finally discovered that we had found, the obviously misnamed, a “Common Frog”. One in twenty years? Not that common!
Evening
meal
After
everyone had showered, it was time for our evening meal.
Starter –
Tomato and coriander soup with a roll.
Main – Ham quiche,
chips and salad.
Dessert –
Fruit salad
Cheese and
biscuits
It is
fairly quite at the Centre at the moment.
Two schools left this afternoon.
They have been replaced by an A Level group from an all girls school in Kent
